The Story of the Master Ball
by striderender
Summary: On how the Master Ball came to be. May expand (not sure if oneshot)
1. Chapter 1

In an age buried and forgotten, long before the formation of the Pokemon league, man had come far. He had mastered science long before he had come to the wisdom necessary to prevent its abuse.

Earth was a sullen paradise. Hegemonic government prevented large scale on-going war and the threat of nuclear annihilation had subsided with technological advancement and the unification of the planet. In the year 2501, things changed.

A group of radical animal rights activists acquired classified documents detailing the development of a program called "Pocket Monster" - a new approach to war-fighting using genetically engineered creatures possessing enormous power. The documents outlined a process for dematerializing the animals and rematerializing them as necessary. The activists presumed this to be excruciating for the creatures, and were compelled to act.

A four-person strike team, who would later be known as Team Rocket, used a series of RPGs to penetrate the outer wall of the facility. The highly-classified, yet low security facility was filled with scientists in white suits. Two security personnel responded immediately, shooting one of the assailants in the arm. Team Rocket took cover behind the hole they had made and threw knockout gas canisters into the building. Within seconds, the lab personnel and guards were on the floor. Team Rocket, working quickly, searched the building. They came upon a room filled with small orbs. The orbs were gray, and had a single lens on the front of the ball. They matched the description of the dematerialization devices outlines in the documents. The team quickly grabbed the orbs, threw them into a sack, and moved on through the complex.

They came out into a much larger area filled with cages of varying sizes. The creatures inside were unlike any animals they had ever seen. There were small, orange lizards with fire burning at the tips of their tails. In another cage, there was a blue turtle standing on two legs with childlike hands. Some of the other creatures were less pleasing to the eye. There were small, purple globs with eyes and mouths. Another seemed to spew diesel exhaust from pores all over its body, while somehow levitating. Shaking off their awe, they began to break open the cages, freeing the monsters to reign havoc on the facility while they made their escape.

They didn't realize the hell they had unleashed. As the researchers awoke to realize the mob of their creations barreling down the halls toward them, their eyes widened in fear. Several of the monsters began to use their mysterious powers. Some shot fire from their mouths as others fired electrical arcs at the researchers right through the open air. Team Rocket fled through the hole in the wall, waving the monsters to follow behind. "Come on, we've gotta go!", they screamed. The creatures stopped momentarily, then seemed to recognize them as friends. They rushed out of the hole in the wall wreaking havoc on the burning remainder of the lab as they escaped into the open countryside.

Aircraft patrolled the area for days, finding nothing. The terrorists had escaped and the monsters had been set loose into the wild.

"Hey, this data cache has some pretty interesting stuff in it!" Jim said to his partner, Roland. "Yeah, well is it making us any money?", Roland snapped back, continuing to dig through the rubble. The two employees of Silph had been excavating under the building for three weeks, having found nothing of value but strange items they had never seen before.

"Doesn't this all make you wonder even a bit?" Jim asked. "Not really. Just here for the paycheck." Roland replied, continuing to shovel dirt away into a wheelbarrow. Jim rolled his eyes. The gears spun in Jim's head. "You know, this could be how the Pokemon came to be, Roland. This is pretty heavy stuff." Roland stopped digging. "What are you talkin' about, huh? Pokemon get created in some lab where Team Rocket of all people plays the goodguys and busts 'em out? Get real. Somebody upstairs left that down here as a prank." Jim considered it for a moment. "I don't think so. This pad doesn't seem to need any kind of charging - and the language is kinda weird - like it was written before anyone knew what Pokemon were. They're talking about a Charmander like they've never seen one before." "All the more reason to think it's a prank!" Roland shouted. "If you don't pick up that shovel and find us something worth being down here, the next thing you're going to be reading is the tattoos on my knuckles!". Jim put the datapad into his satchel and picked up his pickaxe reluctantly.

The two worked diligently in silence for an hour, clearing away almost ten feet of rock and soil. Roland stopped to wipe the sweat off of his forehead. "You know, what if you're right?" Roland said. Jim looked back, confused. "No, I mean, well...what if something came before all this?" Roland murmured in a solemn tone. "Well, I'd say we should be looking for more than fossils then." Jim replied. Jim swung his pickaxe and drove it into the wall. CLINK. "What'd you get?!" Roland said, dropping to his knees and digging with his hands.

Jim dropped and began to claw his way toward the metallic object. There, imbedded in the wall of the cavern, was a grey Pokeball. Roland and Jim looked at each other with puzzled expressions. Roland picked the ball up and pressed the button. The ball snapped open with a bright flash of yellow light, and Roland's entire frame flashed for a split second before the light was drawn into the ball. It snapped shut and fell to the floor of the cave. The ball didn't even wiggle. Jim was terrified. He picked up the ball and ran out of the cavern toward the mine elevator.

He completely bypassed the locker room, still covered in dirt, tracking it all the way through the connecting hallway to the guard station. He blew past the guard screaming bloody murder and made his way toward the elevator to the office building. He got in and pressed the button for the top floor. Panting and scared, Jim examined the ball all over. It was slivery in the light of the elevator, and the yellow light had faded into a glowing ring around the button lens. Jim was afraid of being caught as well. He didn't even try to let Roland out. The elevator chimed as it reached the top floor.

"BOSS! BOSS!" he screamed, running toward the executive office. The secretary opened her mouth to speak, but Jim paused, stared at her, and simply said, "No.". Jim bolted away from her desk and into the office of the executive of Silph, out of breath and sweating. "You'll have to excuse me, Mr...?". "It's Giovanni." "Yes, Mr. Giovanni. Another time, perhaps?". "Oh I'll be seeing you very soon." the man said as he left the office, eyeing the ball in Jim's hand as he left. Jim shut the door behind the CEO's guest and ran over to the desk, planting the ball and two large clumps of dirt on the man's spotless desk. "What is the meaning of this?!", he demanded. "Roland...", he gasped, pounding the ball on the desk three more times. "...he's in it.", Jim finished. The CEO's eyes widened. "This thing caught... a man?!". Jim nodded furiously. "Tell no one about this." the man said in a grave tone. He picked up the ball and threw it at the other side of the office. Jim screamed in terror.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"  
"Roland, go!" the CEO yelled.

The man exploded out of the ball, which stopped traveling in mid air at the point of release, materializing Roland moving toward the wall with the speed that the ball was thrown. Roland flew into the wall on the opposite side of the office and crashed upside-down, dropping him headfirst into a trashcan.

Jim's heart raced to calm down as his brain attempted to console his inflamed sense of stupidity. "You okay, buddy?" he asked. "Yeah, but...how'd I get up here? Weren't we down in the dig?" Roland asked, picking himself up out of the trash. "Neither of you can speak a word of this to anyone. The last time we found one of these, we invented the Pokeball." The men's eyes widened. "So it's true...man did create the Pokemon." Jim said. "That kind of talk will get you buried by accident down there in the dig. Tell no one what you've learned and I'll personally guarantee you'll die old and wealthy." the CEO said with an honest grin. Roland smiled back, "So how much are we talking here...?". The CEO wrote out a check and handed it to Roland. "Well, I resign!", Roland said, turning and walking out of the office. Jim yelled, "Where are you going!". "To buy the S.S. Anne!", Roland replied, his voice trailing off. Jim turned to find the CEO with a check in hand. Jim pocketed the check without looking at it.

"So you want to work, I take it?", the CEO asked. "Yes, sir. I'm curious about the what-came-before.". "You can never tell anyone! Not your wife, not your kids, nobody! There are only a handful of people on Earth who know there even was a 'before', and that's for good reason. Are you sure?", the CEO asked with a deadly tone. "I don't have any family. Just me and good ol' curiosity!", he said with a smile. The CEO gave a sad grin. "Alright then, take this down to the sixth floor and have them get to work right away. And Jim - not a soul."


	2. Chapter 2

In the weeks that came to pass, Jim didn't want to leave work. On top of the grandiose check he kept tucked away, he had been given free reign at Silph. When the CEO wanted an errand run off the record, he would page Jim up from the excavation and entrust him with the deed. Jim didn't know whether the CEO actually liked him or wanted to keep an eye on him. He figured it could be a mixture of the two. When he wasn't digging with his new partner, Harold, Jim sat down on his favorite rock and began to browse the datapad.

"Whatcha readin' there, Boss?" Harold asked.  
"The funnies." Jim said with a stone face.  
"Oh...ok...kay." Harold said, glancing back over his shoulder before continuing to dig through the rubble.

Jim smiled to himself after the man returned to his labor. Harold wasn't too bright and he scared easily, so Jim had a good time messing with him.

"Now, back to the good stuff." Jim said to himself.

[DATA LOADING]

News of the scandal quickly broke in the press. "Armed Terrorists Assault Bio-Lab - Suspects Still at Large". In an age where every inch of a city is surveilled, every fingerprint can be identified, and the heat signatures of every living thing on the planet could be seen from space and identified, remaining at large was no easy task.

The last bastion of freedom for the activists lay deep underground, where they had escaped to quite rapidly after the events at the lab. Several of the creatures had an uncanny knack for moving earth rapidly and in large quantities, and working together they had cleared a small tunnel into a rock face. These particular monsters were adept at blind navigation, and quickly cleared out enough space for a large cave. One creature in particular excelled at the feat. The member of Team Rocket who had been shot - Riccard - tried to stop the small creature and make it rest.

"Oh, let it dig." Paul was quoted to have said.

The monster began to mock him. "Dig, let dig." it spoke.

Their eyes widened.

"They have vocal capabilities!? My god." Andrea said.

From that point on, the monster repeated itself constantly as it worked.  
"Dig, let dig! Dig, let dig!".  
"I guess we'll call this one Diglett, then." Paul said with a laugh.  
"We ought to be careful when we're addressing them. We wouldn't want them repeating something-" Andrea began before the fourth member carelessly stumbled into one of the less appealing monsters.

"Never in my _life_ have I seen anything grimier than you!" Benetti snapped at the purple blob.  
"Grime-r? Grime!" the monster yelped in joy.

Andrea shot Benetti a wicked glare. Benetti looked ashamed for a moment, then shrugged.  
"What? He's gonna grow up to be a big pile of muck. He could have a worse name."  
"BENETTI!" Andrea snapped.  
"Alright, alright." he replied.

The Grimer looked contemplative for a moment, then tore off to help the rest of the monsters clear out the mountain.

Inside of a single day, the creatures had cleared a space large enough for a mansion. Water flowed from an underground well that the Diglett had found. Torches the monsters had constructed were stuck into the walls. Strangely enough, plants were beginning to grow inside the cave. Several of the monsters with plant-like characteristics had been marching around in lines near the well, while others had been digging irrigation trenches and widening the pond. Team Rocket had been sitting off to the side, watching them work in complete awe. A larger, pink, egg shaped creature had been fussing over Riccard's arm for some time.

"It's a chance you take when you go into battle, my friend." Riccard said to the creature.  
"Chance-y!" it replied.  
Andrea rolled her head and gave Riccard a long, unapproving glance. Riccard smiled and scratched his head and said, "You know, it's possible they were made this way intentionally. They seem to understand our language enough to piece together a word and 'you'."  
"So that's how we name them." Andrea said with confidence.  
"Let's find out!" Benetti said excitedly. "You-over there-bulb-uhh...dinosaur guy!".  
The plant-monster working the hardest pounding seeds into the ground turned its head and said, "Bulba-saur!".  
"Guess so." Benetti said with a smirk.  
"Benetti, you-!" Andrea began before Riccard grabbed her arm.  
"We don't want any of these noble creatures calling themselves 'idiot' or worse for the rest of their lives." he said.  
Andrea swallowed and calmed herself. She went back to her datapad, recording the events unfolding.  
Paul smiled. "Bulbasaur isn't a bad name at all! It's a fantastic name." he said.  
"Try another one, Benetti." Paul said. Benetti looked at Riccard. Riccard nodded, and pointed to a small orange creature with a fire burning at the tip of its tail.  
"That little guy looks like a salamander who could come in handy if you didn't have any charcoal." he said. He walked toward the monster and asked, "Can you make charcoal, little salamander?"

The monster cocked its head, then ran off. It came back a minute later with a pile of wooden sticks, stacked them into a pile, lifted its head back, then thrust its face toward the pile with an open mouth blowing a jet of flame. The sticks were completely incinerated.  
Andrea was amazed. "It...understands?!". She typed furiously into the datapad.  
"That's right! Charcoal salamander right here!" Benetti said, completely pumped.  
"Charmander!" the monster exclaimed.  
"Another fantastic name." Paul said, applauding.  
"Now don't have all your fun right away - and try not to say anything foolish." Riccard said to Benetti.  
Benetti's eyes widened in excitement as he brisked off into the cavern.

Riccard looked down at his wounded arm and jumped. "It's...healed?!".  
"Chan-sey!" the creature said as it waddled away to see to a sick creature.  
"Astounding!" Andrea remarked, examining Riccard's arm for any scar tissue.  
"It must have been designed as a field medic." she said.

"It appears our new friends are quite talented, wouldn't you say?" Paul said, chewing on a blade of grass.  
"I'm afraid I have some bad news about them." Andrea began. "They're not always going to be exactly this smart. It seems the way they were designed was to learn everything they could in this generation - then, when they reproduce, that DNA will be hard-coded with the knowledge they've obtained."  
"What does that mean?" Riccard asked.  
"It means that Chansey is always going to be Chansey, and every child it ever has will be Chansey. Everything they learn in this generation will be passed down to their offspring for every generation to come. They'll retain most of it - but their learning curve will never be this high again." Andrea explained.

"They can't even defend themselves properly! This is it for them - their _one_ life to life that really, truly matters. I won't be responsible for leaving them and their children defenseless." Riccard shouted.  
"Benetti, get over here! And bring your friend!" he yelled angrily, echoing through the cave.

Benetti rolled his eyes. "And remember, little guy, you only listen to somebody if you respect them - and I got alot of respect for Riccard."  
"Char!" Charmander nodded.

The pair walked back to where the rest of Team Rocket sat along the rocky wall.  
"I want you to try to teach the Charmander to blow fire on command." Riccard said.  
Benetti turned away slowly toward the Charmander. "I don't know little guy - do you respect me?"  
"Char!" it said happily.  
"Alright then! You remember when you blew fire and torched the sticks? Do that as hard as you can - that's called a Flamethrower attack. You ready?" he asked the creature. It nodded back. "Char!".

"Can I get a log or something over here?" Benetti yelled to the rest of the cave. A small, yet sturdy creature came running toward him holding half of a tree just fifteen seconds later.

"Did you...um...chop that down yourself?" Benetti asked the tadpole with legs.  
"Ma...chop?"  
Benetti slapped his forehead. "Sorry Andrea!" he said. She rolled her eyes angrily.  
Just then, a flying purple creature floated past them, spewing clouds of smog as it puffed by.  
"I can't stop coughing!" Benetti gasped. "I'm gonna choke!"  
The flying creature paused and turned. "Koffing!" it mocked. Benetti rolled his eyes and thought, "Not again..."  
"Choke?" the Machop said, looking confused.  
"No - get that thing out of here could you?" Benetti said to the Machop.  
"Chop!" it said, leaping toward the creature - sending it flying scared across the cave.  
"Thanks, champ." he said. The Machop nodded.  
"Can you set that up over there by the wall?" he pointed to the log.  
Machop nodded and carried the log over to the wall with surprising might. "Alright Charmander - Flamethrower!" Benetti said excitedly.

The tiny lizard cocked it's head back as it drew in a deep breath, then let loose a stream of fire strong enough to force Benetti to turn his head. The others looked with wide eyes and gaping jaws at the amount of fire that poured from the creature. The Charmander stopped, out of breath, and looked at Benetti. "Char?"

"That was amazing, Charmander! Great job!" Benetti said excitedly as he turned to look at the wall. Not only was the log nothing more than a pile of ash, but the rock walls of the cave behind were red hot and dripping onto to dirt floor. His expression turned to awe.

"You got some heavy firepower, little guy! I'm glad I'm on your side!" Benetti said, laughing. The Charmander was elated as Benetti rubbed the back of its head.

"They created the perfect weapon." Riccard said to himself.  
"It would seem so." Paul chimed in. "Small, capable of taking orders, seemingly harmless, immensely powerful, and cute as a child."

Jim put the datapad down and thought for a moment. "So they got their names way back then...".  
He picked up his pickaxe and began to dig.


End file.
